Another Life, Another Choice
by not-that-deep
Summary: Choice is dependent upon perception, so you could say it's our perceptions that limit us... No matter the choices, no matter the timeline, Naruto has always been perceived as a force of nature.


_Night murdered Spring_  
 _and the Stars leapt to intervene._  
 _Hopeless as ever, the Wolf sang goodnight._  
 _The Moon, red with dawn, could only wonder 'why?'_  
 _But it was the Sun who never stopped to weep,_  
 _too blinded by its own brilliance._

* * *

It had been a reflection of a past that haunted his waking hours only slightly less than his sleeping ones.

A lightning-charged fist and a mission that Fate itself had to have designed by hand. The memory replayed over and over in his thoughts as if those actions had been his own(and they were, just not then. No, that moment had already passed for him).

Red cloth ripped, flesh and bone gave way, and the tremors of a heart that was barely missed rattled like chimes against his(but not his) arm before stuttering to a halt. Then there was the chirping of a thousand birds as a scream wound its way into the fabric of the universe, joining ranks with countless others and one in particular that he often heard whenever the avifauna made their voices known.

And his face- that boy's face had been a replica of his own: wide eyes full of shock and dawning horror as her weight settled against him, his arm still resting in the hollow of her chest. There was no light in those green eyes, and he knew that Sasuke would never forget the moment he realised-

 _She's dead._

 _"I killed her."_

"Not you, Sasuke," he muttered, unable to move but trying to shake his head anyway. "Me."

The young man's eyes remained open and unseeing, face permanently caught in a rare display of emotion. In surprise, no less. (If he didn't know him half as well as he did, then it would have been easy to pretend that the desperation wasn't still evident.)

 _"You killed her!"_

 _Sasuke rose shakily to his feet, straightening as much as he could. "And I've regretted it every day since."_

 _Tears streaked down a mask of rage and betrayal that had stewed for too long. "You don't get to say things like that! Not after all these years, not after-" A rattling breath. "Not after all this!" He swept a hand outward, towards the crumbled buildings and shattered roads lit by the light of a watery sun._

 _Onyx eyes turned shadowed and the Uchiha's lips curled into a snarl. " **No.** This is all you,_ _dobe."_

 _Naruto wasted no time in charging forward._

A shuddering breath, blood gurgled in his throat, leaking into his airway and slowly drowning him.

Yellow and orange slipped into his vision and he squinted. The sun hadn't been that bright for months, why change now of all times?

"Kaka-sensei?"

If it were possible, Kakashi would have stiffened. As it was, all he could think was _'Of course he's brighter than the sun.'_

An arm slipped beneath his shoulders, lifting him until breathing was slightly easier and the blood could move away from his windpipe. Sasuke's body left his view as Kakashi was dragged around a corner and propped against stone rubble.

"You're alive," he managed to rasp as a bright blue gaze moved into focus.

The blonde's smile was bitter. "Yeah. It's just us now, eh, sensei?"

Panic flared deep in his gut and his eye (because now there really was just one) widened. "The...others?"

Naruto's head bowed, long yellow bangs moving to hide his face and making him look too much like Minato-sensei. "I'm sorry."

He said nothing to that, allowing his eyes to slip away from his sensei's son and study the broken visage of his home. A humourless chuckle escaped him at the sight of the Hokage Mountain. "No more H-Hokag...e, huh?"

"Ah," Naruto followed his line of sight to what remained of the carved faces. "I gave up on that a long time ago," he returned quietly.

He wasn't the bright boy that Kakashi remembered. The resemblance to Obito was completely absent now. Well, not the Obito he had known, at least. "Wher-'s _Madara_ ," he wheezed, somehow managing to sneer the name even in his current state. (Although the effort left him with a spotty vision.)

The Child of Prophecy turned back to him, face full of so much emotion it might as well have been blank for all that Kakashi could decipher.

Naruto looked away again, not wanting to see his old sensei's reaction. "You mean Obito? I killed him."

Kakashi inhaled sharply, choking a little.

The blonde shifted on his heels and reached out to ease his companion into a better position. "I meant it when I said it was just us."

Spots danced until he could scarcely see and there was a pressure on his throat that had nothing to do with his internal injuries or the emotion welling up beneath his skin. "Why," he choked out just before those fingers could start pressing deeper.

A pause. Then the words were spilling out into the winter air as if the question was one he'd always been waiting for and no one had ever asked. (And maybe that comparison wasn't far off. Maybe his old student was desperate to explain, to confess.)

"You know how it was, people don't like being reminded when all they want is to forget. All of Konoha saw me and they hated what I represented: a little boy with a murderous beast in his gut and carnage at his back. They saw me and they saw the past and all those things that hide behind regular faces."

His lips peeled back in an animalistic snarl and he kept his glare pinned on the distant sky, but his voice remained quiet and calm - everything Naruto shouldn't have been.

"And I thought I could change that. I wanted to be Hokage so people would see _me_ and not be reminded. I wanted to help them forget, to convince them that wounds healed and that pasts did too."

"Naruto... "

"Then Sakura-" He cut himself off and started again, emotion leaking back into his words through the cracks in his facade. "Then I realised that I didn't want any of that after all. I wanted- I _want_ everyone to be _safe_."

"My parents, Jiji, Sakura-chan, I couldn't keep losing people, Kaka-sensei! I couldn't- I needed-"

Kakashi was wrong.

The man in front of him was the same loud-mouthed upstart from all those years ago. He didn't smile anymore and there were shadows in those eyes of his, but he was still Kushina and Minato's son - he was still Naruto.

But, even so, if that was the case… Then... Why w-would he- Pressure was welling up beneath his eye sockets as well as around his throat. He couldn't breathe and the pain…

"'In this world,'" The younger man continued, swallowing, "'wherever there is light, there are also shadows. As long as the concept of winners exists, there must also be losers.' That's what Madara said and I believe him.

"Trying to protect and keep the peace means we're just going to keep causing suffering and war and..." He squeezed his eyes shut, hunching forward (curling inward).

"And people are just going to keep suffering unless- So I- Everyone's gone, Kaka-sensei, and that means no one has to suffer. I'm keeping the future generations safe, dattebayo! And Sasuke-" Naruto cut himself off, finally looking back down at his old sensei. "He killed her and he was going to try an' stop me," he whispered, "you can understand that, right?"

There was no answer.

"Se-" He stopped, eyes squeezing shut again as he took deep breaths. When they opened next, the tears had stopped and the sun was slipping past the horizon.

He removed his hands from the jounin's throat and shifted him so that he was flat on his back. For a few minutes longer, the young man watched the wind sift through the silver hair. A moment's consideration and Naruto's hand stretched out to grip the older man's mask.

Team Seven had never been able to figure out what kind of face their jounin-sensei had been hiding and - as the last member left and with the last chance available resting before him, it wouldn't be right _not_ to… It was the last bit of mystery his childhood-self had that remained unanswered.

Just as the fabric was about to leave the tip of his nose, the blonde stopped.

In another life, Sasuke would have done it. In another life, Naruto would have done it. In another life, Sakura would be waxing lyrical about honour and common decency up until she pulled it away completely.

With a sigh, he dragged it back up and stood. "Next time, I guess." _(There would be no next time.)_ He started walking, imitating the familiar, jaunty wave that he hadn't seen for years and calling out, "see ya, Kaka-sensei."

If his smile didn't reach his eyes and if his voice was a little rough around the edges, well, it's not like there anyone was around to notice.

* * *

 _A/N: What genre would you consider this?_


End file.
